Oxfordshire

BLENHEIM SP 435 169

Column of Victory

The fluted 134 feet high Doric column was begun in 1727 by the masons Townsend and Peisley. It was a simplified version of Hawksmoor's design that was inspired by the pillar in Piazza Navona, Rome. It is surmounted by a lead statue, by Sir Henry Cheere, of the Duke of Marlborough dressed as a Roman senator.The column was completed for Lord Herbert in 1730 by Roger Morris.

BLENHEIM SP 438 164

Grand Bridge

Sir John Vanbrugh intended the Grand Bridge to have tall arcades above the central span, set within corner towers, making it a version of Palladio's Rialto Bridge. It was to be habitable with 30 rooms. It was started in about 1706 but building ceased in 1712 when Vanbrugh's work on the palace stopped. The masons were Peisley and Townsend.

BLENHEIM SP 438 153

Grotto

Lancelot Brown may have designed a 'rough' exedra near to the lake at Blenheim in the 1760s.

BLENHEIM SP 440 161

Blenheim Palace Orangery

BLENHEIM

Rosamund's Well

Legend has it that Henry II had a bower made for his mistress, Rosamund de Clifford, and she is said to have bathed in the pool there.

BLENHEIM SP 440 158

Temple of Diana

The Ionic tetrastyle temple was designed by Sir William Chambers and built 1772-3.

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​Boathouse

BLENHEIM SP 442 167

Woodstock Gate

The Triumphal Arch was designed by Nicholas Hawksmoor in 1723. The builders were Peisley and Townsend. The flanking doors were at a previous entrance before the palace was built, and moved here in 1773.

BLENHEIM

​Gateway

BLENHEIM

GREAT HASELEY SP 666 047

Rycote Tower

Rycote Tower is part of the Tudor mansion that the 5th Earl of Abingdon ordered to be demolished in 1807. The main part of the house was burned down in 1745, and the present house was converted from the stables in the 1920s.

KELMSCOTT SU 250 988

Kelmscott Manor Summerhouse

MARCHAM SU 454 965

Dovecot

The dovecot at Marcham is in a field behind the war memorial.

MIDDLETON STONEY

Oxford Lodge

OxfordLodge may have been designed by Sanderson Miller in the mid 18th century, or possibly by Henry Hakewill and Thomas Cundy in the early 19th century.

MINSTER LOVELL SP 324 114

Dovecot

The 15th century dovecot was part of the manorial farm next to the manor house. The estate was owned by the Lovell family from the 12th century to 1485.

NUNEHAM COURTENAY

Nuneham Bridge

Nuneham was the seat of the Harcourt Family. Lancelot Brown worked there in 1778.

The rustic bridge crosses to an island in the Thames.

OXFORD

Martyr's Cross

The Martyr's Cross is a memorial to the Protestant Martyrs, Thomas Crammer, Nicholas Ridley and Hugh Latimer.

It was designed in the style of an Eleanor Cross by George Gilbert Scott and completed in 1843.

STEEPLE ASTON SP 482 260

Eyecatcher

Designed in about 1740 by William Kent, the Eyecatcher is one of the earliest examples of a sham ruin. It is to be viewed from Rousham Park and gives meaning to Horace Walpole's words about Kent 'He leaped the fence and saw that all nature was a garden.'

Other eyecatcher arches can be seen at;​'Grange Arch', STEEPLE, Dorset'Hundy Mundy', NEWTHORN, Borders

WHEATLEY SP 595 058

Round House

The lock-up was built in 1834 by a local mason called Cooper near the quarry where paupers earned their 'work fare' by breaking stones for the parish roads. It was constructed as a hexagonal pyramid so that inmates couldn't escape through roof tiles. Inside the cell are the village stocks.